The app, which had been free on iTunes and garnered a 4.5-star rating, will be shut down, with much of the company's team joining Apple.

The deal comes just days after new leaked that the iPhone maker had quietly bought BookLamp, a book recommendation startup.

What do these startups have in common? They are both keen on the use of user data to refine the experience of the app. This type of technology has grown in popularity, particularly with music services like Pandora and Beats Music, which Apple famously agreed to purchase Beats earlier this year for $3 billion.

Various companies are looking to capitalize on users that want to transfer news and talk radio to smartphones. The Tribune Company's Digital Ventures technology unit launched a newsreader called Newsbeat that also featured customizable news that was read aloud to users. Inside also has a customizable news app that features a learning algorithm.

Swell is also clearly targeted at a particular demographic — the commuter. The average U.S. commuter spends more than an hour each day going to and from work, creating a captive audience that had long been the cash cow of traditional radio.

Swell's promo clip highlights how it wants to take over your commute:

With Apple shutting the program down, the assumption would be that its features will get integrated into Apple's podcast app, which, as Liz Gannes at Re/code noted, is rated a paltry 1.5 stars.

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